Mia Maloney

As long as I’ve known about Star Trek, I’ve known I am not
interested in Star Trek. My idea of this kitschy television show from the ‘60s
— a time when super heroes squared off with bad guys using campy dance moves
and foxy remarks — was about space captains and sexy sidekicks wearing tight,
condiment-coloured felt costumes. No offense to any Trekkies out there, but to
me, it always seemed a little… cheap. That is until, after a little prompting, and the promise of all-I-can-eat buttery popcorn, I went to see Star Trek Into Darkness this past
summer, and I have to say — I liked it.

Suddenly I was thinking about
the U.S.S. Enterprise, Klingons, The Wrath of Khan, and I wondered why? Was I
suddenly becoming a geek?
Or had it been in me the whole time?

What I discovered — like the
hipsters who emerged from their plaid-filled closets before them — geeks, were now
rising from their parents' basements and letting their geek flags fly. It appeared, this one-time counterculture, was now gaining mainstream momentum and being a geek was not only worth admiring, it was worth emulating.

So, from the barmaid with the
retro Spock tattoo on her leg, to the barista lamenting Ben Affleck as the
new Batman, I began wondering, who’s really a geek, and who’s on trend? As a
self-proclaimed book reading, losing-days-to-a-good-read, kind of nerd, I
thought I’d explore the appeal of this sudden spike in “geek culture”, and do
it in a truly nerdy way: I’d read, I’d research and I’d dissect. In the spirit
of "geekin' out”, I’m putting on my proverbial “Spock Ears” and boldly going
where, well, many have — but this girl — has never gone before.

Through Batman, Superman and
of course the aforementioned Star Trek, what I will discover and you will too,
is there’s a lot more than gadgets, space travel and punchy captions to “geek
culture”. The things that geeks really love about their beloved heroes are the
same things I love about the characters in my books: their struggles,
their relationships, their humour and how they fit into this world or the one
they live in. Geeks, unlike most nerds however, just happen to be tech-savvy, and thanks in part to the Steve Jobs’ and Bill Gates’ of this
world, have been able to get their interests out on a massive scale. While
intentionally or not, geeks have managed to foster a now très
sheik “geek culture” and the once hidden, bullied and pocket-protected geeks, are now the cool kids on the block.

Mia Maloney

is a twenty-something student, cat mother and all-things-food lover, trying to
figure out what it means to be a real obsessive, intelligent, and secretly-running-the-world
kind of geek.

SPINE ONLINE

Algonquin’s School of Media and Design offers a two-year program in Professional Writing, designed for people who have an aptitude and passion for writing and a willingness to practise their craft in a variety of media. This is the online portion of that media training. Graduates will possess exemplary writing skills for both print media and electronic platforms, and this is their practice ground.